Privacy Policy

LAST UPDATED: July 30, 2021

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the staff of Climatelinks.org are committed to protecting individual privacy and securing the personal information made available to us when you visit our site or our pages hosted by other sites (such as our official profiles on social networking sites). This Privacy Policy describes what information is made available to USAID and how that information is used and retained. In order to enhance security for Climatelinks.org users and site administrators, we have enabled HTTPS for all site traffic.

Information You Give Us

If you choose to contact us with personal information through our website, we use that information to respond to your message and to help provide the information requested; we will not use this information for any other purposes other than those stated in the initial collection form.  This information may be collected through our contact form, submission of content, and as a part of our annual photo contest.

We only share information with another government agency if your inquiry relates to that agency, or as otherwise required by law. If you have submitted your personal information as part of a request, we do not create individual profiles with your personal information or provide it to any entity outside of the organizations managing the Climatelinks website. If you submit your personal information as part of content submission, such as our annual photo contest, an account may be created so that you can manage your submission in the future.

Site Management

The content and technology behind Climatelinks.org are managed by a team of USAID Global Climate Change Office staff, supported by technical staff from Training Resources Group, Inc; Environmental Incentives, and Forum One.

Information Automatically Collected

When you visit Climatelinks.org, the following basic information is automatically received and stored by the web servers hosting Climatelinks.org:

  • The originating Internet Protocol (IP) address and internet domain name;
  • Information about your computer or mobile device (e.g., type and version of web browser, operating system, screen resolution, and connection speed);
  • The pages on Climatelinks.org that you visit;
  • The internet address, or URL, of the website that connected you to our site, if you accessed Climatelinks.org via a link on another page (i.e., “referral traffic”); and
  • The amount of data transmitted from Climatelinks.org to your computer.
  • We use this information to help us make our site more useful to visitors -- to learn about the number of visitors to our site and the types of technology our visitors use. We do not track or record information about individuals and their visits.

How Information is Used

If you choose to provide us with information, we may use that information to contact you, respond to your message, or provide you the information or services you requested. In order to serve you better, we may analyze multiple sources of data you have provided (e.g., , to look up whether you previously contacted USAID about the same topic so that we do not send you a duplicative response). We may also use messages or comments collected through Climatelinks.org or official social media pages for our own purposes, such as to improve our website’s experience.

Retention

Electronically submitted information is maintained and destroyed according to the principles of the Federal Records Act and Freedom of Information Act and the regulations and records schedules approved by the National Archives and Records Administration.

Cookies

To better serve our visitors, we use technology commonly referred to as "cookies" to track new and returning visitor actions on Climatelinks.org. Cookies  are used to track the way visitors use our site so we may continually improve the experience. These cookies do not capture personally identifiable information, such as your name or email, or track interactions outside of Climatelinks.org.

Climatelinks.org uses a third-party analytics provider (Google Analytics) to analyze data from cookies. The third-party analytics provider does not receive personally identifiable information through these cookies and is prohibited from combining, matching or cross-referencing Climatelinks.org information with any other information. We have also limited the provider’s ability to see your full IP address (a process known as “IP masking”).

 

Please review Google Analytics’ privacy policy for additional information.

If you are concerned about the potential use of the information gathered from your computer by cookies, you can remove or block the use of web measurement and customization technologies by changing the setting of your browser to block cookies. To block cookies on your browser, see instructions provided by Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Microsoft Edge.

Email Subscriptions

To manage email subscription lists we use a third-party provider, Campaign Monitor, to retain the names and email addresses of our email subscribers and  other information they may have shared with us (e.g., job title, organization), logs of emails we send, and automatically generated email data used to improve our email communications. This automatically generated email data (generated through simple tools such as “pixel tags” and link redirects) includes:

  • The recipient’s email client;
  • Whether the email was opened;
  • If a link in the message was clicked;
  • Whether an email was delivered;
  • If the email was forwarded; and
  • If the email was printed.

If, at any time, you wish to stop receiving our messages, simply click on the “Unsubscribe” link at the bottom of each email message. For further information, visit Campaign Monitor's Privacy Notice.

Your Data Protection Rights

Every user is entitled to the following:

  • The right to access: You have the right to request copies of your personal data stored by Climatelinks.org. We may charge you a small fee for this service.
  • The right to rectification: You have the right to request that Climatelinks.org correct any information you believe is inaccurate or incomplete.
  • The right to erasure: You have the right to request that Climatelinks.org erase your personal data, under certain conditions.
  • The right to restrict processing: You have the right to request that Climatelinks.org restrict the processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
  • The right to object to processing: You have the right to object to Climatelinks.org's processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
  • The right to data portability: You have the right to request that Climatelinks.org transfer the data that we have collected to another organization, or directly to you, under certain conditions.

If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you. If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact the Climatelinks team at team [at] climatelinks [dot] org.

Third-Party Websites

USAID and the Climatelinks team maintain official pages or accounts on some third-party websites such as LinkedIn and Twitter in order to better engage with our online audience. Your activity on those sites is governed by the third-party website’s security and privacy policies. Users of third-party sites often share information with the general public, user community, and/or the third-party operating the site and should review the privacy policies of those sites before using them. You should also adjust privacy settings on your account on any third-party site to match your preferences.

To improve the quality of our services, we may integrate measurement tools for basic analysis of activity on third party sites (such as likes and retweets) and do not collect personally identifiable information.

Links to External Sites

Climatelinks.org may link to websites created and maintained by other public and/or private organizations and individuals. When you follow a link to an external site, you are leaving Climatelinks.org and are subject to the external site‘s privacy and security policies. We also do not endorse the site’s sponsor, any views they express, or any products or services they offer.

Rights to Individuals in the EU

This section applies to individuals in the European Union (the “EU”). With respect to the personal data the Climatelinks team collects directly from you, we are the “data controller,” as defined in the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The Climatelinks team will only use your personal data when we have a lawful basis to do so under the GDPR. Usually, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

  • When it is necessary for our legitimate interests, and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests;
  • When we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation; or
  • When we have obtained your consent.

Under the GDPR, individuals in the European Union (“EU Individuals”) have certain rights in relation to their personal data, which are summarized below. These rights are subject to your exercising them in good faith and are subject to our legitimate interests or other valid basis to continue processing your personal data, in accordance with our policies and applicable law.

Access: If asked by an EU Individual and if we are obligated to do so under applicable law, we will inform that individual about whether we are processing their personal data. If we are processing such EU Individual’s personal data, we will provide access to the personal data that we have about that individual. If you request additional copies of your personal data, we may charge you a reasonable fee.

Rectification (e.g., Correction): If the personal data we hold about an EU Individual is inaccurate or incomplete, that individual may ask us to have it corrected.

Erasure: EU Individuals may request we erase (i.e., delete or remove) their personal data in certain circumstances. If you are legally entitled to erasure, and if we have shared such personal data with third parties, we will take reasonable steps (taking into account available technology and the cost of implementation) to inform such third parties of your request, to the extent we are required to do so by applicable law.

Restriction of Processing: EU Individuals have the right to restrict the processing of their personal data in certain circumstances, such as if they contest the accuracy of that personal data, if the processing of the personal data is unlawful, or if we no longer need the personal data for our business purposes. If you are legally entitled to restriction, and if we have shared your personal data with others, we will use reasonable efforts to inform such third parties of your request, if we are required to do so.

Data Portability: EU Individuals may ask to receive their personal data from us, where the legal basis of our processing is their consent, and where we carry out the processing of their personal data by automated means. If EU Individuals so request, we may transmit their personal information directly to another organization if it would be technically feasible to do so.

Objection to Processing: EU Individuals may object to the processing of their personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party). As noted above, you also have the right to object (i.e., opt out of) our processing of your personal data for direct marketing purposes.

Automated Decision-Making and Profiling: EU Individuals have the right not to be subject to a decision when it is based on automatic processing, including profiling, if it produces a legal effect or similarly significantly affects you, unless such profiling is necessary for entering into, or the performance of, a contract between you and us. We do not engage in decision-making based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects concerning an individual or similarly significantly affects an individual.

Processing of Special Categories of Personal Data: There are certain types of personal data that require a higher level of protection, known as “special categories” of personal data under the GDPR. We do not process special categories of personal data unless (a) we have obtained such individuals’ explicit consent or (b) we are otherwise legally permitted to do so.

Withdrawing Consent: In certain circumstances, EU Individuals have the right to withdraw their consent to our processing of their personal data. However, withdrawal of consent will not affect the lawfulness of any processing that had been carried out before consent is withdrawn. Moreover, if we rely on another legal basis (e.g., legitimate interest) to process your personal data, we may continue to process your personal data in accordance with such other legal basis even after you withdraw your consent. If you decide to withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain services to you.

Please note that where we rely on consent to use your personal data, all users worldwide have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. This includes the option to unsubscribe from our email list at any time or to contact us to request to be excluded from our online campaign promotion lists.

EU Individuals who wish to exercise any of the rights they have under the GDPR should contact the Climatelinks team at team [at] climatelinks [dot] org. We may need to request specific information to help us confirm your identity, so that your personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request.

Generally, EU Individuals will not have to pay a fee to exercise the rights described above.  However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances.

EU Individuals may lodge a complaint with the appropriate regulatory body or supervisory authority in the country where they reside, where they work, or in the place of the alleged infringement of the law.